EXCLUSIVE: Some of the best screenwriters have come from journalism. Amazon Studios has acquired the screenplay pitch The Bunker from former New York Times columnist and current Vanity Fair correspondent Nick Bilton. Scott Z. Burns has become attached to direct and produce the project, which marks Bilton’s first original screenplay.

Burns, who wrote Contagion and The Informant and wrote and produced Side Effects, is helping to develop the project.

The Bunker follows a group of billionaires who seek shelter in a luxurious underground bunker after a devastating attack cripples America. But as their worst instincts come to the surface, they realize it takes more than money to survive.

This is not the first time that Bilton’s work has been picked up for film or TV. He is also the best-selling author of American Kingpin, which filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen and Steve Zaillian are adapting for Chernin Entertainment. Bilton also wrote Hatching Twitter, which he currently is adapting with Lionsgate for TV.